The death toll from the Philippines' fiercest storm this year has risen to 375, officials said Monday, with more than 50 others still missing and several central provinces grappling with downed communications and power outages, as well as a desperate need for food and water.
Typhoon Rai reached sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour (121 miles per hour) and gusts of up to 270 kilometers per hour (168 miles per hour) before blowing out into the South China Sea on Friday.
According to the national police, at least 375 people were killed, 56 went missing, and 500 were injured. The death toll could rise further because some towns and villages were cut off from the outside world due to downed communications and power outages, despite enormous cleanup and repair operations.
Numerous people were murdered due to falling trees and collapsing structures, as well as flash floods and landslides. In Negros Occidental Province, authorities said, a 57-year-old male was discovered dead hanging from a tree branch, and a lady was blown away and perished.
Governor Arlene Bag-ao of Dinagat Islands, one of the first southeastern provinces to be hit by the typhoon, said Rai's ferocity was worse than that of Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most potent and deadly typhoons on record that devastated the central Philippines in November 2013 but left no casualties in Dinagat.
"If it was like being in a washing machine previously, this time there was a huge monster that smashed everything, grabbed anything like trees and tin roofs, and then hurled them everywhere," Bag-ao explained via telephone. "For six hours, the wind swung north to south, east to west, and back again. Certain tin roof sheets were blown away and then reintroduced."
At least 14 villagers were killed. Over 100 others were injured by flying roofs, rubble, and glass shards and treated in makeshift operation rooms in Dinagat's devastated hospitals, Bag-ao added. Many more people would have perished if residents of high-risk villages had not been evacuated.
Dinagat and many other typhoon-ravaged provinces were without power and communications, and many residents were in desperate need of construction materials, food, and water. Bag-ao and other provincial officials flew to surrounding areas with mobile service to solicit assistance and coordinate recovery efforts with the national government.
Over 700,000 people were displaced in central island regions by the storm, including over 400,000 evacuated to emergency shelters. Thousands of inhabitants have been rescued from flooded communities, including Loboc town in the hard-hit Bohol province, where families were stuck on roofs and in trees as they sought refuge from rising floodwaters.
Officials said that Coast guard ships transported 29 American, British, Canadian, Swiss, Russian, and Chinese visitors stranded on Siargao Island. Siargao Island is a popular surfing destination that was ravaged by hurricanes.
Officials said emergency teams were restoring power to 227 cities and municipalities. So far, just 21 areas have regained strength. The storm knocked off cellphone service in more than 130 cities and towns, although officials said at least 106 had been restored by Monday. Two local airports remained closed save for emergency flights, but the civil aviation administration said most others were reopened.
Bag-ao and other provincial authorities expressed fear that their provinces would run out of gasoline, which was in high demand due to the usage of temporary power generators, such as those required to cool refrigerated warehouses containing significant quantities of coronavirus vaccine stockpiles.
Pope Francis extended his solidarity with the people of the Philippines on Sunday at the Vatican, referring to the typhoon that "devastated many homes."
Each year, the Philippines, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea, is battered by approximately 20 tropical storms and typhoons. Additionally, it is located amid the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire," making it one of the most disaster-prone countries on the planet.
